History and Obama

Notes for a president who reads

Sunday, February 08, 2009

By CLARENCE MOHR

Special to the Press-Register

Of the many adjectives used to describe America’s new chief
executive, none seems more fitting than the word
"literate." Well before the Democratic nomination
was decided last fall there were clear indications that in
Barack Obama the nation had discovered something quite rare
— an ambitious politician who both wrote books and devoured
the work of serious thinkers. Articles in The New York Times
and other publications revealed that Mr. Obama’s reading
tastes ran to philosophy, theology and serious literature,
with a smattering of history and public policy journalism.
As Inauguration Day approached, press reports noted that the
president-elect was studying both Lincoln and FDR as he
prepared for the challenges of leadership in a moment of
crisis.

History (and historians) can, in fact, offer useful guidance
to the new administration. Over and above the television
superstars providing historical commentary for cable news
programs, one may point to a number of 20th-century scholars
whose works speak to larger questions of policy and
leadership.

During the 1950s, for example, a group of historians arose who stressed the uniqueness and the indigenous origins of American values and institutions. Their argument, which presumed a longstanding consensus on core values, had clear implications for Cold War policy makers. Daniel Boorstin, a leading spokesman for the "consensus school," argued in his 1953 book "The Genius of American Politics" that the uniqueness of American history offered a compelling argument against seeking to transplant American institutions to other parts of the globe. Instead of seeking to convert other nations to an "American theory of government," Boorstin urged the United States to lead by example. "In the past we have wanted to be judged not by what we could tell the world but by what we could show the world," Boorstin wrote. "It is our experience, not our dogma or our power, that may be the encouragement and the hope of the world." Apparently such books failed to make the reading list of those who formulated the "Bush Doctrine."...